Erik Satie

On most mornings after he moved to Arcueil, Satie would return to Paris on foot, a distance of about ten kilometres, stopping frequently at his favourite cafés on route. Accoring to Templier, "he walked slowly, taking small steps, his umbrella held tight under his arm. When talking he would stop, bend one knee a little, adjust his pince-nez and place his fist on his lap. The he would take off once more with small deliberate steps."

When he eventually reached Paris he visited friends, or arranged to meet them in other cafés by sending pneumatiques. Often the walking from place to place continued, focussing on Montmarte before the war, and subsequently on Montparnasse. From here, Satie would catch the last train back to Arcueil at about 1.00am, or, if he was still engaged in serious drinking, he would miss the train and begin the long walk home during the early hours of the morning. Then the daily round would begin again.

Roger Shattuck, in conversations with John Cage in 1982, put forward the interesting theory that "the source of Satie's sense of musical beat--the possibility of variation within repetition, the effect of boredom on the organism--may be this endless walking back and forth across the same landscape day after day . . . the total observation of a very limited and narrow environment." During his walks, Satie was also observed stopping to jot down ideas by the light of the street lamps he passed.

Robert Orledge, Satie Remembered. French translations by Roger Nichols. (Thanks to Tom Cunliffe.)

See also: "A Day in the Life of a Musician" by Erik Satie

Comments

[abbeville homes]

The we would take off once more with small deliberate steps.

[Charles Marriage from Brittany Holidays]

This article makes a lively connection between Satie the man, and Satie the composer. I love the measured way he rations out the notes in his music, much the same as taking careful and sometimes tired footsteps home. Though I live in France his world is worlds away from mine.

What is a "pneumatique" and does his music have any relation to our own - simple, but unsophisticated - Breton music?

We encourage visitors to our Brittany Gites by talking about the lively music scene here. Would a Satie here and alive help things along. Probably not - just my private passion.